Missing vowels in writing of a child with ASd- any ideas?

[Peachy]

DS1 ahs a dx of AS / HFA, and is beinga ssessed for dyslexia, dysopraxia etc.

He ahs a very low reading age (got level 1 in his SATS in everything) and finds writing hard.

he likes to make lists but his lists are illegible. we naalysed a few this weekend (normally we've been told to not comment as his self esteem is low and we want to boost that), and noticed that most of the consonants are in place (in some lists, ALL of them!) but vowels are missing. It seemed a bit odd! Any ideas anyone?

Hi Peachy. Having just been flicking through my new course books (should be reading them properly, of course, but gently does it) it seems like the kind of strange thing you get with dyslexia but I didn't see any specific reference to missing vowels. It is a bit odd.

If you ask him can he tell you, or write down what the vowels are? If he can then maybe it is deliberate although what the purpose would be I don't know.

It sounds like he is using almost a texting style of writing - is that what it looks like?

The other thing I am wondering is if the school have been doing an exercise with him where he has to work out what the missing vowels are in a word. He might have got the idea from there. I wonder if he gets confused with words like 'sit' and 'sat' where it means the same but different tenses and is sort of hedging his bets by leaving out the vowel. That would require quite a complex and deliberate thought process though but the brain is a very funny thing so who knows!

Sorry I can't be much help. I hope he gets his dyslexia assessment soon so you can get to the bottom of it.

Thanks Niecie, i wondered if it was the dyslexia- will be interesting. Willa sk about the mising vowels- they play hangman so thats a good idea! Definitely not textinga s we dont allow him to have a mobile phone (not knowing social rules caused a freew problems when he came downstairs a few times to call poeple at 3am!)

Another idea I have been given (had my MA ASD interview today and this came up) is that ds1 hasn't sussed out that ohter poeple need to share his writing and is using s self taught form of shorthand, apaprently if thats the case a few social stories about (say) a boy who had to leave an important message but it couldn't be understood might work? Might get my Mum to try writing him a few things in shorthand, see if he can relate that?

Google Marion Blank ASD and reading. I'm reading her "reading remedy' book at the moment (I got it from Amazon). It;s not ASD specific but is very good, she has done a lot of work on ASD and reading, and is bringing out an ASD specific book soon (although will be aimed at non-verbal kids- her reading remedy book may be more appropriate for you).

oh it tackles writing as well- not just reading.

If he finds writing hard, it may be that he is just writing down the bare minimum & that if he understands it, then to him - that's fine? If he can read his writing without vowels, then what's the point of them?
I work (TA) with a lad with ASD & he often refuses to write things down like homework because he doesn't see the point (he says he can remember it - which would be fine if he could ....!)

Ok, will make a note of that- thanks Yurt (ordered the toilet training book, waiting fro the delivery now- Amazon pre-Christmas! LOL)

Got the MA place btw, just ahve to pass this course now (ability yes, gettingarseintogear poor )

AH whizzz that does sound like him too- blinkin' infallible, he is....

It may be like that famous bit of text from Oxord Uni or wherever that says you don't really need all the letters in a word to be able to read it & know what it means (bit like Cod really!)

Congratulations on the MA place, Peachy!

Missing the vowels out as a shorthand and not seeing the point of writing them down are sort of the point of texting I suppose which is why I imagine it looked like that.

How does he write words like 'you' for example, where a majority of the letters are vowels?

Whizz - I have seen somebody talking about that research twice recently. Apparently, so long as the first and last letter are in the right place you can still read it.

An amazing thing the human brain.